blok’s 30 day challenge

We all start the same way every year. We make promises to ourselves, like ‘get fitter’, ‘be healthier’, ‘be better’. But it rarely goes to plan as life, work and play all get in the way. This year, however, we’ve taken the approach to fitness a little more seriously – and so far we’re loving it.

Back in 2016, we were introduced to BLOK in Clapton, a boutique fitness studio featuring some of London’s top instructors. They instil technique and skill into your workouts, pushing you hard to a backdrop of blaring beats and lashings of encouragement. Having opened up its newest location in Shoreditch earlier this year, it was time to get to grips with BLOK once again with 30 classes in 30 days. As well as allowing you to experience a variety of sessions, classes and instructors it’s also a mini-challenge.

30 in 30 – one a day – and if you put your mind to it, it’s definitely possible. We spent the first couple of weeks doing a lot of exercise. BLOKFIT seemed to be our go-to class, the intense circuits concentrate on speed, strength and flexibility, giving us a full body workout. We’ve never sweated so much! Seriously. The greatest sense of achievement here was completing every single exercise, pushing for the full 45 seconds and never stopping.

BOXCON and BOX & BELL are where boxing conditioning training comes in. Learning combinations for a cardio boxing workout on the bag alongside free weights drills, we were back and forth between the two, building up stamina, endurance and strengthening our core. HIIT is exactly what it is, absolutely no let-up of body weight cardiovascular training that tested our body and mind. Half the battle is convincing yourself that you can keep going, and we were surprised at how quickly you can improve. We wouldn’t say the workout got easier, but it felt a lot better than the first couple of times we did it.

As we got more and more into the classes we started doubling up. A CARDI KILLER workout in the morning – 45 minutes of non-stop full body fat burning and strength training – with another session in the evening. We slept well. We tried to eat better. We felt AMAZING (still do).

With so much cardio, we were tired, sore and aching… so we tried a class to change that. BLOKFLEX is 50/50 HIIT and stretch; you sweat it out with maximum effort at relentless pace, then hit the mat when your muscles are warm for some juicy static stretching. This really did help with our recovery and aided flexibility.

So 30 sessions in 30 days… did we do it? Well after four days in Portugal, a stag do and an all-day bar crawl in Margate, it sure did feel like it. But in truth, we managed 24 classes in that time. Not a bad effort. What we have noticed is that our fitness levels are so much better, impressive in fact (smug face), we sleep better, our posture has improved and we feel strong. The classes motivated us to keep it up. It’s hard work but also very fun and a great way to make sure you are always moving forward.

If you’re not sure what kind of workouts you want to get into, give BLOK’s 30 in 30 a try.

bloklondon.com

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